March 13
Events *1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected anti-pope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. *1639 - Harvard College was named for clergyman John Harvard. *1781 - William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus. *1845 - Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premièred in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist. *1862 - American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation. *1865 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America reluctantly agrees to the use of African American troops. *1881 - Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was March 1 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.) *1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885). *1897 - San Diego State University founded. *1900 - Boer War: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State. * 1900 - In France, length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law. *1921 - Mongolia, under Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg, declares its independence from China. *1925 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution. *1930 - The news of the discovery of Pluto was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory. *1933 - Great Depression: Banks in the United States begin to re-open after the Presidentially mandated "bank holiday". *1940 - Russo-Finnish Winter War ended. *1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700. * 1943 - Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków. *1954 - Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: Viet Minh forces attack the French. *1957 - Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista. *1962 - Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the USA, proposes a document, called Operation Northwoods, regarding performing terrorist attacks in Guantanamo Bay, to Secretary of Defense Robert Mcnamara. The proposal is scrapped and President John F. Kennedy removes Lemnitzer from his position. *1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module. *1979 - The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada. *1986 - Microsoft has its Initial public offering. *1989 - A geomagnetic storm caused the collapse of the Hydro-Quebec power grid. Six million people were left without power for nine hours. *1991 - The United States Justice Department announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. *1992 - An earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500 in Erzincan, eastern Turkey. *1996 - The Dunblane Massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and 1 adult teacher are shot dead by a spree killer who then commits suicide. *1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader. *1997 - The Phoenix lights were seen over Phoenix, & were seen by hundreds of people, & millions on television. And are now, hotly debated in controversy. *2003 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints have been found in Italy. *2007 - The Bank of England launched a new £20, featuring the Scottish economist Adam Smith. It was the first note in the new Series F banknotes Births *1372 - Louis of Valois, brother of Charles VI of France (d. 1407) *1615 - Pope Innocent XII (d. 1700) *1683 - John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-British philosopher (d. 1744) *1700 - Michel Blavet, French flutist (d. 1768) *1719 - John Griffin Whitwell, British field marshal (d. 1797) *1720 - Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist and writer (d. 1793) *1733 - Joseph Priestley, English scientist and minister (d. 1804) *1741 - Joseph II (d. 1790) *1763 - Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, French marshal (d. 1815) *1764 - Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1845) *1781 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect (d. 1841) *1784 - Jean Moufot, French philosopher and mathematician (d. 1842) *1798 - Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States (d. 1853) *1815 - James Curtis Hepburn, American missionary and linguist (d. 1911) *1855 - Percival Lowell, American astronomer (d. 1916) *1860 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (d. 1903) *1864 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (d. 1941) *1870 - Albert Meyer, member of the Swiss Federal Council in the 1930s (d. 1953) *1884 - Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d. 1941) *1890 - Fritz Busch, German conductor (d. 1951) *1898 - Henry Hathaway, American film director and producer (d. 1985) *1899 - John Hasbrouck van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1980) * 1899 - Jan Lechoń, Polish poet (d. 1956) *1900 - Béla Guttman, Hungarian footballer (d. 1981) * 1900 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet, Nobel laureate (d. 1971) *1907 - Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religions and writer (d. 1986) *1908 - Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (d. 2002) *1910 - Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt, Danish actor (d. 1985) * 1910 - Sammy Kaye, American musician (d. 1987) *1911 - L. Ron Hubbard, American author and founder of Scientology (d. 1986) *1913 - William Casey, American CIA director (d. 1987) * 1913 - Lambros Konstantaras, Greek actor (d. 1985) * 1913 - Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian writer *1914 - Edward O'Hare, American pilot (d. 1943) * 1914 - W.O. Mitchell, Canadian writer (d. 1998) *1921 - Al Jaffee, American cartoonist *1923 - William F. Bolger, 65th Postmaster General of the United States (d. 1989) *1926 - Raúl Alfonsín, President of Argentina * 1926 - Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (d. 2003) *1927 - Robert Denning, American interior designer (d. 2005) *1929 - Peter Breck, American actor *1930 - Jan Howard, American singer * 1930 - Liz Anderson, American singer *1933 - Mike Stoller, American songwriter *1934 - Barry Hughart, American author *1935 - Joseph Mascolo, American actor * 1935 - Leslie Parrish, American actress * 1935 - Michael Walzer, American philosopher *1938 - Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002) *1939 - Neil Sedaka, American singer and songwriter *1942 - Dave Cutler, American software engineer * 1942 - Geoffrey Hayes, English television presenter and actor * 1942 - Scatman John, (real name John Larkin) American singer (d. 1999) *1943 - André Téchiné, French film director and screenwriter *1945 - Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician * 1945 - Michael Martin Murphey, American musician *1946 - Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier (d. 1976) *1947 - Beat Richner, Swiss physician and cellist *1948 - Robert S. Woods, American actor *1949 - Hiroshi Kazato, Japanese racing driver (d. 1974) * 1949 - Julia Migenes, American soprano *1950 - William H. Macy, American actor *1951 - Fred Berry, American actor and dancer (d. 2003) *1952 - Wolfgang Rihm, German composer *1953 - Deborah Raffin, American actress *1955 - Bruno Conti, Italian footballer * 1955 - Glenne Headly, American actress *1956 - Dana Delany, American actress *1957 - Steve Lake, American baseball player *1960 - Yuri Andrukhovych, Ukrainian writer, poet and political essayist * 1960 - Adam Clayton, Irish bassist (U2) * 1960 - Joe Ranft, American animator (d. 2005) *1963 - Fito Páez, Argentine musician and songwriter *1964 - Will Clark, American baseball player *1967 - Andrés Escobar, Colombian footballer (d. 1994) *1968 - Akira Nogami, Japanese professional wrestler *1970 - Tim Story, American film director *1971 - Annabeth Gish, American actress * 1971 - Robert Lanham, American author and satirist *1972 - Common, American rapper *1973 - Edgar Davids, Dutch footballer * 1973 - David Draiman, American musician and songwriter (Disturbed) * 1973 - Bobby Jackson, American basketballer *1974 - Thomas Enqvist, Swedish tennis player * 1974 - Vampeta, Brazilian footballer *1976 - James Dewees, musician * 1976 - Danny Masterson, American actor *1977 - Ed Sloan, American musician (Crossfade) * 1977 - Momo Sylla, Guinean footballer * 1977 - Kay Tse, Hong Kong singer *1978 - Tom Danielson, American cyclist * 1978 - Karina Smirnoff, Ukrainian dancer *1979 - Johan Santana, Venezuelan baseball player * 1979 - Spanky G, American musician (Bloodhound Gang) *1980 - Lee Jung-hyun, South Korean pop singer and actress *1981 - Stephen Maguire, Scottish snooker player *1983 - Kaitlin Sandeno, American swimmer *1984 - Pieter Custers, Dutch athlete * 1984 - Yuuka Nanri, Japanese seiyū * 1984 - Marc Zwiebler, German badminton player *1985 - Emile Hirsch, American actor *1986 - Natalie and Nicole Albino, American musicians (Nina Sky) * 1986 - Chiaki Kyan, Japanese gravure idol *1987 - Marco Andretti, American racecar driver (grandson of Mario Andretti) *1989 - Harry Melling, British actor *1999 - Wiktoria Gąsiewska, Polish actress Deaths *1271 - Henry of Almain, English crusader (b. 1235) *1395 - John Barbour, Scottish poet *1516 - King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (b. 1456) *1569 - Louis I de Bourbon, French Huguenot general (b. 1530) *1573 - Michel de l'Hôpital, French statesman *1604 - Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer (b. 1537) *1619 - Richard Burbage, English actor (b. 1567) *1711 - Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic (b. 1636) *1773 - Philibert Commerçon, French naturalist and explorer (b. 1727) *1778 - Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701) *1803 - William Emes, English landscape architect (b. 1729 or 1730) *1808 - King Christian VII of Denmark (b. 1749) *1842 - Henry Shrapnel, British soldier and inventor (b. 1761) *1854 - Jean-Baptiste Guillaume Joseph, French statesman (b. 1773) *1879 - Adolf Anderssen, German chess player (b. 1818) *1881 - Tsar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1818) *1884 - Leland Stanford, son of American railroad magnate, Stanford University named for him (b. 1868) *1901 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833) *1906 - Susan B. Anthony, American women's suffrage activist (b. 1820) *1911 - John J. Toffey, American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient (b. 1844) *1918 - César Cui, Russian composer (b. 1835) *1925 - Lucille Ricksen, American actress (b. 1909) *1938 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Russian politician and intellectual (b. 1888) * 1938 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857) *1941 - Elizabeth Madox Roberts, American poet and novelist (b. 1881) *1943 - Stephen Vincent Benét, American author (b. 1898) *1949 - Henri Giraud, French general (b. 1879) *1955 - King Tribhuvan of Nepal (b. 1906) *1963 - Austin Dobson, British racing driver (b. 1912) *1964 - Kitty Genovese, American murder victim (b. 1935) *1965 - Corrado Gini, Italian statistician (b. 1884) * 1965 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop, poet, and politician (b. 1882) * 1965 - Vittorio Jano, Italian engineer (b. 1891) *1972 - Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b. 1941) *1975 - Ivo Andrić, Serbo-Croatian writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1892) *1983 - Louison Bobet, French cyclist (b. 1925) *1988 - John Holmes, American porn star (b. 1944) *1990 - Bruno Bettelheim, American psychiatrist (b. 1903) * 1990 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (b. 1915) *1995 - Leon Day, American baseball player (b. 1916) * 1995 - Odette, French-born WWII heroine (b. 1912) *1996 - Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (b. 1941) *1998 - Bill Reid, Canadian artist (b. 1920) * 1998 - Hans von Ohain, German engineer (b. 1911) *1999 - Lee Falk, American cartoonist (b. 1911) * 1999 - Garson Kanin, American writer and director (b. 1912) * 1999 - Bidu Sayao, Brazilian born soprano (b. 1902) *2001 - Henry Lee Lucas of heart failure major serial killer, 63 years old *2002 - Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher (b. 1900) *2004 - Franz König, Austrian Catholic Archbishop of Vienna (b. 1905) *2006 - Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer (b. 1944) * 2006 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress (b. 1925) * 2006 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host (Press Your Luck) (b. 1942) *2007 - Arnold Skaaland, American professional wrestler (b. 1925) External links * BBC: On This Day * *On This Day in Canada ---- Category:March